Nix9to5

How to Build a Birthday (by Amanda)

// October 24th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies

My baby is another year older and I’m starting to realize that I don’t have babies any more.  Just boys.  Big boys.  I think each birthday hits me harder and harder as I see how time is flying by.  How the days of reading them stories, tucking them in, and loving on them in public will rapidly come to an end.  For now, they still need me and want me and think I’m cool, but I’m really trying to relish that fact – - for soon, I’ll be a lame ol’ mom that they just want around to take care of their laundry and food and tote them places…

But today is a happy day – aside from my weird hormonal meltdown – to celebrate Super D making it to the ripe old age of 3.  This year he got to pick his own party theme, and he chose a “’struction truck” party.  I’ve already done the dirt cake in the back of a dump truck for both boys’ 2^nd birthdays so I couldn’t do that again.  (And it turns out Super D doesn’t like chocolate, so a strawberry cake wouldn’t look much like dirt anyway. )  So I just went with plain strawberry cupcakes – which if you overcook them slightly (oops) actually have a slight orange tint, which works well with a yellow/orange/black theme.  Also in my favor, Super D was born a mere 2 weeks before Halloween, so orange and black party supplies are easy to find.

I took out the boys’ trucks and washed them thoroughly and used them for serving dishes.  I made cupcake picks from the “Boys Will Be Boys” Cricut cartridge, with the help of my mom.  (I had tried to find printables or something in stores, but couldn’t find anything I liked.)  I even got my hubby to borrow a few cones for me to use for decoration.

But my favorite part of the party, I think, was the party favors.  I lucked out at the Target dollar spot and found hard hats and tools.  I painted the hats with paint pens to make them more party-esque, and sent one home with each child.  I put a couple of tools and a Dum dum inside each balloon*, blew it up, tied it, and strung it up.  Before the children left the party, they lined up and one-at-a-time, got to pop a balloon with a pin to get their prizes.  This was a pretty big hit, as far as I could tell.  (My boys are asking me to make more for them to pop.)  I’ll definitely do this for future parties.

For school favor bags, I’m sending “Being 3 ROCKS” bags with yogurt raisins for “rocks”.  It’s just something small, but really, that’s enough for a class of young’ns, in my opinion.

I hope these pictures will help give you some ideas to make a construction truck party of your own.  It’s big fun for little boys, and is a super-easy theme for parents to work with!

Note from Nicci:  I told you she’s amazing.  To see all of the fantastic details, click each picture for a larger view.  Also, check out Amanda’s train birthday cake and tractor birthday cake that she made for her boys’ other birthdays.  I’ll see if I can talk her into sending me pictures of her fishbowl cake and any other amazing cakes as well.  

Memo to Mommy

// October 19th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies

I found this from Parents magazine via Pinterest:

Table Talk (by Amanda)

// October 18th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Family

I don’t like saying this, but the awful truth is, I often hate dinner time.  It’s not that my boys are picky eaters – I mean, they have their likes and dislikes (whereas I, on the other hand will eat anything in sight – - except for ketchup…NEVER ketchup) but they’ll usually try just about anything, for which I am grateful.  We have a couple of problems, though.  My oldest son spends most of his time acting crazy and trying to “entertain us”, crossing over quickly into “annoying us” territory, and strongly distracts his little brother from eating and leads him to mimic the crazy/annoying behavior.  And my little one, aside from doing most of the things his brother does, eats about one bite every 8 minutes.  It’s like he forgets to chew!  It drives me insane!  I know the rule about kids will eat when they’re hungry, but I want them to eat at mealtimes!  When I clean up the kitchen after dinner, I want to check that box off for the day.  Kitchen – Done!  I don’t want to go back in later to make something else and clean up again.  I don’t give them a lot of snacks and there’s never anything between lunch and dinner – except for some playtime and a nap.  We’ve yelled and set a timer and taken the food away and fed them ourselves and anything else we’ve heard from friends in similar situations.  Nothing seemed to work…until now!

We’ve developed a new “game” called, as Bo Chuck decided, Table Talk.  We have a two-minute hourglass that the boys got at a dentist appointment.   It’s supposed to tell them when they’re done brushing, but to be honest, we don’t use it.  Not for that, anyway.  Its new place is at the kitchen table.  When we all sit down to eat, we flip the timer over, and each person takes a turn telling about his or her day till the timer runs out.  (I know this doesn’t sound like a long time, but it can really put you on the spot!)  During your two minutes to talk, no one else gets to talk.  They just eat.  So, for the first 6 out of 8 minutes, you’re quiet and doing nothing but eating.  I’m not sure why this works for our boys, but it does.  And, it gives me a chance to hear a little about my husband’s work day, since I’m typically terrible about asking.  I like hearing what the boys have to say, too.  It’s funny how nervous they seem to get when it’s their time.  After each person goes, we can ask him/her questions about things they’ve said.  Once we’ve all had our turn, we ask random questions.  We’ve even written out some questions and dialogue-starters – and discussing what would be on the “table talk cards” was one night’s discussion.  We now have a glass bowl that stays on the kitchen table with various questions and conversation starters:  “What’s your favorite …”, “Would you rather…”, basic personal information (birthday, what’s your address/phone number, where were you born, what’s your full name, etc”), basic Bible questions and memory verses, inkblot tests (what does this look like to you), and other pre-K-level questions (seasons, days of the week, count to…, and such.)  Tonight was the grandparents’ night to come for dinner, and we got to play with them, too.  Super D was a bit keyed up, but overall, Table Talk was a big success, even with the adults.

And, for the past week, when we sat down for dinner, there’s been no yelling, no feeding children that are fully capable of feeding themselves, and some surprisingly clean plates at the end of the meal.  And, I feel a little better getting to hear about my kids’ and husband’s days.  Even though I’m with the boys most all day long, their perspective of the day’s events can be quite different from mine!  And when fall break is over and they’re back to school, I’ll hopefully get a glimpse into their school day – the time of which I don’t get to be a part!

A Toddler’s Rules of Possession

// October 12th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies

I saw this on Rookie Moms.  Sounds about right.

Noodle Day (by Amanda)

// October 12th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Crafty Stuff

We recently had another rainy day with no real plans.  I sure wasn’t dragging the boys out in the pouring rain to run errands (and I slept in a bit and didn’t really have time to get ready – so being in public wasn’t really an option anyway.)  I had to think of something to do…

Cartoons were on the TV, and I knew I didn’t want that to be what we did all day, so I decided to try something.  The boys have enjoyed stringing/sewing things lately – - I think because they’ve seen me sewing recently – - so I decided we were making necklaces.  I bought some big beads the other day, but some of the holes were a little too small and wouldn’t go over our ginormous craft needles.  Frustrating.  Noodles, however, would!  But rather than stringing plain, ol’, boring noodles, I decided to spruce them up a bit, using a technique we learned for coloring rice on teachpreschool.org.  I took 4 ziploc bags and colored sharpies and put a number on the front of each bag in a different color.  The boys counted out the appropriate number of noodles for each bag and dropped them in.  I added a dash of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of food coloring (to match the number on each bag).  After sealing the bags tightly, I let the boys shake them to mix the color evenly.

I lined 2 cookie sheets with paper towels and then dumped each bag of noodles out onto the paper.

With a hairdryer on the low setting, I let each boy dry his noodles.  It was fun to watch the noodles blow around and roll on the pan.

After they were good and dry, I removed the paper towels and evenly distributed the colored noodles in their pans.  I also strung yarn through a craft needle and tied a button on the end so the noodles wouldn’t slide off the end.  (This required burning the ends of the yarn because my button holes were small.)   After that, the boys strung their brightly colored necklaces.

I snipped the yarn at the base of the needle and tied a knot at the end, leaving a large enough loop to slide over the button.  Easy on, easy off!   The boys, being so giving, decided they had made one for me and one for daddy.  Daddy’s looked very nice with his polo and khakis at the dinner table, and I enjoy the splash of color the necklace adds to any outfit!

The Bro-Bots (by Amanda)

// October 7th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Crafty Stuff

The Bro-Bots

I like making things – and making holiday shirts and such for my boys is fun….BUT, my oldest boy is going on 5 and anything too “cutesy” just isn’t going to work anymore.  That’s why I was super-pumped when I found this idea for a robot shirt while browsing on pinterest. http://www.annaleahart.com/2010/04/we-heart-robots.html

(What did I ever do in my spare time before my sister told me about this site?!!)

I printed the picture so I could make my own version and showed it to my oldest son.  “Would you wear something like this?”

“No way.”

“Why?”

“It has a heart!”

Oh…  I really hadn’t even noticed that.  I asked him if he’d wear it if it didn’t have a heart and he said probably.  All systems are a-go!!!

I looked through the T-shirts that Super D has recently outgrown (and destroyed) to look for a gray one I could cut into pieces.  Not a problem.  I then located a long sleeved white T-shirt for each boy.  (I typically buy one or two when they’re on sale just for crafting purposes, so I already had a couple on hand.)  Last year we made snowman shirts and Bo Chuck’s never was great, so I decided to re-use it and just cover the snowman face.  Yay, me, for re-purposing!!

I cut the front, back and sleeves from a gray t-shirt and then ironed it onto some Heat and Bond iron-on “material” I got at JoAnn.  I was too nervous to cut out the fabric, though, so I used scrap paper to make patterns first.  I let Bo Chuck help design his robot – he told me which head, how the arms should be, which buttons he wanted to use and where, and things like that.  (Now he’ll have a vested interest in his shirt because it’s his creation.)  After I had decided on the layout of the robots, I cut out the t-shirt with the iron-on paper on the back side.  This actually made cutting knit material much easier!  I then ironed the robots onto the shirts.  I bought light-weight heat-and-bond (not on purpose) so sewing the edges was still a must.*   I very nervously began to sew with a contrasting thread (for added flair).  I’m not a great seamstress, and the shirts may not hold up forever, but I thought it turned out okay.  I also pulled out my sewing manual and learned how to make a zigzag stitch!  I don’t typically venture from what I know, so this was a big step for me!  Ha!

Because I wasn’t sure about ironing on with buttons in place and whether my buttons would be in the way when sewing with a machine, I saved them for last.  The problem with that is that I didn’t want the knot from the button on the inside of the shirt to rub and chafe my kiddos.  So, I just tied string through the ribbon and then glued them on with (what I think to be) washable, permanent glue – E6000.  The first wash will tell me if I bought the right stuff, I’m sure.  If I didn’t, I’ll get something better and re-glue them or figure out how to sew the buttons on without rubbing my boys’ bellies raw.

The boys are very excited about their silly new “bro-bots” and asked to wear them immediately.  If they hold up to a young boy’s wear and tear, their mom will be very excited, too!  (I’m always skeptical when it comes to my sewing skills!)

*  If you wanted to make one of these and didn’t want/know how to sew, you could just buy heavyweight heat and bond or stitch-witchery.

Note from Nicci:  I LOVE these Bro-Bot shirts Amanda made!  I’m thinking I may actually attempt this because it is way too cute for words.  Thanks, Amanda!!!

So, What Do You Do All Day? (by Amanda)

// October 3rd, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Children and Babies, Life in General, Time Management

Note from Nicci:  While I’ve been hard at work trying to get this new cleaning routine down from the I Hate Housework Challenge, the Amazing Amanda has been thinking about some of the ways she tries to make housekeeping manageable with two small boys.  She shares some of her ideas here.

On days we stay at home, I feel like I work all day to keep the house clean, and by the time my husband gets home, the house looks pretty much exactly the way it did before (at best.)

Pattern and Sticker Pages (by Amanda)

// September 26th, 2011 // No Comments » // Activities, Children and Babies, Life in General

In preparation for a recent road trip, I scoured the internet looking for “busy book” ideas.  There were some great ideas, but I needed ones for a 2 year old and 4 year old (nearly 3 and “four and a half.”)  I took some of the things I found online and adapted them to make 2 three-ring binders full of learning and fun!  Out of about a dozen ideas, a few seemed to stand out far above the rest, and I learned a few very awesome things along the way!!

First of all, I discovered that putting “worksheets” into top loading page protectors allows the pages to be worked over and over again with a dry erase marker/crayon!  That was an unexpected surprise.  I had been laminating pages to make them reusable and then made this fascinating discovery.  From now on, anytime I have a particular love for a worksheet, I’ll put it into a page protector so it can be done over and over again.  (I have some Usborne Ready for Reading and Ready for Writing workbooks that I can’t bear to “ruin”, so that’ll be our approach for those for quite some time!!)

I also discovered that laminating cardstock makes stickers easily removable.  The stickers themselves may or may not be reusable, but the pages are!  And that brings me to my first favorite busy book item.

I was looking at free printable pattern pages and came across one that prints circles for “Fruit Loop” patterns.  I thought this might make a good snack/activity on the road.  Turns out my ancient computer and printer have some communication issues and the images wouldn’t print.  I was very frustrated!  I got 3 pages of nothing but borders.  Sigh.  I headed toward the trash in frustration when it occurred to me – I can make my own patterns, and I have the borders neatly in place already!  I already had 3 packages of labels – dots and large and small rectangles – for another purpose, but I quickly realized a new use for them.  I made patterns and left blanks for the boys to complete the patterns.  (My 4 year old has been doing/enjoying patterns at school.)

I put lots of sticker pages in zippered pencil pouches and handed those to the boys.  I also included googly eyes and some make-your-own dino stickers (they had mouths, spots, eyes, etc).  On the backs of the pages, the boys could make their own creations all together!

 That has proven to be pretty entertaining, too!  Super D, still under the age of 3, doesn’t quite get the patterns yet but matches shapes and enjoys making the creatures.  Bo Chuck can do both.

We’ve even taken this one in our “church bag” and the boys have done quite well with it there, too!  Anything that keeps the boys quiet and on their bottoms during worship is a big hit with me!!!

You’ll have to stay tuned to Nix9to5 for my other favorites….  All in good time!

Gloomy Day Fun (by Amanda, with commentary by Nicci)

// September 22nd, 2011 // No Comments » // Activities, Children and Babies

Today it was cloudy and drizzly so rather than playing outside like I had planned, we had to improvise.  I had planned to make “doodle paint” (a find on Pinterest)* to paint with outdoors. Since my boys don’t like to sit and paint, I thought the kind of paint that you can squeeze out might be more fun.  We mixed up 2 batches (one blue, one green) and poured it into old glue bottles – leftovers from 2 batches of slime, also from Pinterest, which we now keep in Ziplocs in the fridge and play with from time to time – - including today after lunch.**

The doodle paint was only fun for a couple of minutes.  Super D’s was too thick and when I added water to it, Bo Chuck, his big brother, decided his needed more water, too.

When we tired of that, I decided to break out the shaving cream paint which was posted on Nix9to5 about a week ago.  We took it on the covered front porch, and the boys were allowed to paint an old kids’ table, covered in contact paper.

The boys had fun using different brushes to paint and also their fingers…but just a little with their hands.  (We had to have a damp rag for wiping hands.)***  The boys did this for about half an hour, probably, and then I dragged everything out into the yard to get drizzled on.  I gave the boys some bowls of water, spray bottles, and squirt bottles and they had even more fun getting to clean up their mess.  (Something I treasure because that happens SO rarely!)

My little men smell like old men, but it turned out to be a fun project!

(Note:  The seats the boys are using at the table are yet another Pinterest project.  They are covered with a vinyl tablecloth, so they’re easy to clean!  I love them!!)****

*I think the Pinterest Doodle Paint recipe Amanda used is from Delaware County Moms.  If I’m wrong–well, you can still find a recipe here.

**Slime worked great with Super D and Bo Chuck, but Bear hated it.  I’ll blog about it–and provide the recipe–later.

***Bear hates to get his hands messy (see the above comment about slime), and we can’t even fingerpaint, so I totally relate to the need for a damp cloth to wipe hands.  

****These crate seats are super cute, and I think it was pretty much brilliant of Amanda to use a vinyl tablecloth for easy clean up.  I’m hoping she’ll share her crate making tips with us soon (hint, hint), but if not, I can get you the link to an online tutorial.  It sure would be nice if someone made me a couple of these for Bear’s playroom (also hint, hint).

Bat Shirt Crazy (by Amanda)

// September 20th, 2011 // No Comments » // Children and Babies, Crafty Stuff

When I introduced myself, I told you that everything I do is a trial run and that I am completely average. Sometimes, when I’m having a good day, I forget that and think that I know what I’m doing and that I have mad skillz….and then blogs such as this are possible.

Today I decided to make a Halloween T-shirt for my almost 3 year old, “Super D”.  He informed me the other day that he wants to be a bat for Halloween, and when we later bought a black T-shirt for crafting purposes, he became convinced that this shirt was his “bat t-shirt.” He’s asked for it nearly every day since then. So, today, after some cleaning and basic household responsibilities were out of the way (and nap time rolled around so my “helpers” were also out of the way), I decided to make a bat T-shirt for Super D.

I pulled out my cricut machine and began to look at my few cartridges to see what good bats and other Halloween die cuts I had at my fingertips. After choosing a not-at-all-scary bat, I cut it out on contact paper*, just large enough to span the front of the t-shirt. (*error 1 – Note: I know that most tutorials I’ve seen always talk about using freezer paper, but I don’t have any on hand…and I did have some tacky contact paper that needed a purpose.)

So after some deliberation, I decided to use the reverse image and put the outline of the bat on the shirt and bleach the bat so he’d be a nice gray color… then I could embellish as needed. So I pulled out some bleach and a foam brush and began to blot bleach inside the lines for my cute bat image.

I put cardboard inside the shirt so I wouldn’t soak through to the back, but I think it absorbed some of the bleach and it bled… bleaching outside of my bat outline from underneath. Being terribly impatient, I took my hairdryer and dried the bat image as best I could and then removed the contact paper so I could see just how much patch up work would be needed. To my surprise, the shirt was perfect! If I was trying to make a shirt with a gray blob that looks like a storm cloud, that is.

In an attempt to fix the shirt and make some semblance of a bat, I got the actual bat that was cut out and placed it on the shirt. I then began to blot glow-in-the-dark paint around it. It turned out to be very much the same shade as the gray to which my original “cloud” had faded.

I then took out the bottle of glow-in-the dark paint again and began to outline the bat shape. I also blotted some black paint over the eye holes.

Before the paint could dry, I very carefully removed the contact paper bat to find a glowing outline of a bat. To make him slightly more creepy, I added some fangs – - which mostly look like buck-teeth. Not what I had in mind – AT ALL – but it has a bat on it, and it glows in the dark, so hopefully Super D will like it just fine! Maybe it’ll be his favorite shirt ever. Or maybe he’ll cry when I make him wear it once just because I took the time to make it. Who knows!

Oh, and another non-phenomenal mom note: I was making this for “wear black to school day” . . . tomorrow. The shirt can’t be washed for 72 hours and it’s pretty well soaked with bleach. Hmmm. Looks like we’ll be digging through the closet to find something else black for now. It’ll have to be better than last year’s black day, though, when he wore his brother’s black Nike sweatband because he had NOTHING black in his closet.